Satisfied with her recent endeavors, Valkyrie was taking a much needed break from the day to day drag that was captive-tending by swimming to the main land. Her boys, while precious, got a bit droll after awhile. They are always so sour and sad-faced. It harshed her mellow, honestly. She needed to get away. Besides, her pets would be perfectly fine for a few days. She'd left them plenty of water. As for food, they could go hungry for a little while with no ill effects of her bandmates chose not to feed them.

After reaching the shore and padding out of the surf, Valkyrie shook out her coat and then stopped to gaze up into the grove of mangrove trees. She had yet to explore this place so why not now, when she needed to recharge?

She shook out her coat again and then set off into the boggy territory at a lazy trot.

""

Still feeling quite chuffed with her current state of affairs, Eris was enjoying a walkabout with her new companion. She hadn't yet decided on a name, as the poor thing was still recovering somewhat. It could hardly speak, and when it was able to muster a voice, it was almost softer than a whisper. The ferret was in better spirits, though, and had taken a liking to its new friend.

An unforeseen boon of their newfound friendship was that the small creature spent its days perched and concealed in the ruff of her neck. Eris had managed to teach it two Ademic words that she had assigned to 'left' and 'right' directions, so the ferret was able to steer her by tapping and tugging. It was a mutually beneficial relationship - the ferret was her eyes, and Eris made sure it received excellent medical attention and all the fish it could eat. Together, they were quite the happy couple.

The only thing troubling her - and it was a rather large thing - was Sota's request for her help. His dearest friend had been captured by a rogue, and he had since been contacted to barter for his release. Eris understood that he didn't want to offer anything; to bargain for a life was truly reprehensible. She was lurking in the shallow water, trying to track Valkyrie's scent. If she could find the perpetrator, surely the captives would be nearby? The ferret spotted movement and tugged Eris in Valkyrie's direction, pulling her to a halt behind a thick tree trunk. Hadn't Sota said that he had heard legend of a famously talented blind fighter? Perhaps she still had some spunk in her. For now, Eris laid in wait, trying to formulate a plan.

 

Valkyrie wasn't sure what had caught her attention, but there was a prickling on the back of her neck, a feeling she couldn't shake off. She wasn't alone, was she? Until she knew what she was up against Valkyrie was going to pretend she was clueless. At least for now, anyway. If the opportunity arose to covertly confirm her suspicions she would take it.

She wove through the trees at a lackadaisical pace. Everything about her screamed 'nonchalant' as she lazily picked her way through the grove. Occasionally she paused to sniff at one of the trees, but her stops were brief and she was always quick to start walking again.

Although they may have seemed purposeless, Valkyrie was picking her steps with care. She never stood in one place for long and she changed directions frequently. Doing so would hopefully make her harder to ambush.

""

Well, she had to try something before it was too late. Who knew what this heinous woman was doing to Sota's friend? Eris closed her eyes for a moment and steeled herself. Over her shoulder, to her companion, she whispered: "Keep an eye out for a large female, brown with blue eyes." Sota had said she would be hard to miss, and Eris hoped he was right. Her little friend would have to help her identify the assailant regardless.

How could she distract her long enough for Sota to rescue his friend? Not everyone was the selfless type, but she had met so many kind strangers since coming to these lands. Perhaps the female might be persuaded to help her... no, no. Anyone who ruthlessly took captives did not have a gentle heart.

Eris set her nose to the ground, scenting the myriad of wolves who had already passed through these parts. All of a sudden, the ferret jerked her head up and to the right. Eris squinted, just able to make out a dark shadow moving through the mangroves. Sota had said that his people were adept at climbing trees... could she escape up one of the gnarled mangroves, if need be? The small female gulped and headed towards Valkyrie's blurry form. "Hello!" She called, channeling her Ademic training to ensure her voice was free of emotion, especially the anxiety she felt. "I think I lost my friend, have you seen him?" Stupid, stupid, stupid.

 

Sometime after the first inkling of unease a small female finally approached her. Valkyrie let her gaze rove lazily over the woman as though she was neither surprised or particularly interested in her sudden appearance. She was a tiny thing. Not as little as Valkyrie's feisty little gem, but small all the same. Bait, perhaps? It would be like Valkyrie to use a cute little thing as a lure to draw someone in or disarm them, so she wouldn't put it past a similarly minded person to do the same to her.

Though she appeared unperturbed by Eris' presence, inwardly Valkyrie was wary. If her instinct was right and she was being watched she could only assume the worse. Such was a price of trap-laying; once you got good at it you saw traps everywhere. "Heil, stranger."

Her friend? Hmmm... "I might have," she said in a friendly tone. "What does he look like?"

""

"Well, he's..." Did she tell the truth? Did she lie? Time passed and Eris realized she had been quiet for far too long... how did she turn this around?

With a pitiful mewl, Eris began to cry. Thankfully, the stress of the situation lent some truth to her tears. It was probably best to lie. While Eris led Valkyrie away from the area, maybe Sota could track his friend. If only she wasn't horrible at lying.

"He's enormous! Much bigger than me, although that's not too hard..." she laughed nervously, folding her ears. At her neck, the little ferret clutched pawfuls of her fur in frustration. "And he's pure white - like a ghost. You'd think he'd be easy to find, but," she shrugged, offering Valkyrie a little smile. "But I think I smell him over here - " she gestured somewhere to the west, sniffing the air in that direction. "Have you seen anyone matching that description?" Eris asked, tears still streaming from her eyes.

Everyone she had met so far in Boreas had been so kind to her, but surely her luck would run out soon. The balance had a way of correcting itself when things swung too far in any one direction - and the further it swung, the more violent its correction. Eris gulped at the thought.

 

The girl's hesitation was a dead give away that something was amiss. Usually answering such a question would come naturally and be easy to answer. If Valkyrie had her guess the pause was because the woman was trying to come up with a lie. The odds of there even being a friend to begin with were low. Passively Valkyrie watched the girl's performance and tried to figure out the truth. "I have not."

The wind changed direction and suddenly everything fell into place. The girl smelled of that other little wolf. What was his name...Desota. The one her little gem had instructed her to find for a ransom. The one who would not pay.

Valkyrie grinned suddenly, the gesture not even a little bit friendly. "Do you believe in luck, girl? I do and today fortune is smiling upon me." Her grin turned predatory and she purred, "You are with Desota." She began to slink towards Eris, clearing meaning her harm. "Tell me, is he in the trees watching? Do you think he will leap down to save you?"

""

Eris gulped, knowing now that she well and truly in over her head. Valkyrie's sinister smile chilled her to the core. When the wind changed, Eris folded her ears nervously. Why hadn't she rolled in something foul to disguise his telltale scent? Soon she was supposed to be meeting Oxide at the gully for a sweet reunion after his brief absence. If she wasn't there, what would he do?

"I have a family," she said shrilly, backing up and into the base of a tree where she began to cower. "They'll never stop until they find me, and Tor help you when they do!" Would her goddess defend her? Still hidden in the thicker fur at Eris' neck, the ferret squeezed its eyes shut tight. It had come so close to death for this? "And Sota would never leave a friend behind," Eris said fiercely, without a hint of the doubt that was making her shiver and shake.

 

The girl dropped the act as fear for her own safety took root. Good. Valkyrie had little patience for such things and might have treated her roughly out of spite for the falsehoods. "I have a family," she said, trying to dissuade Valkyrie. "Good," the marauder responded with a satisfied smile, "Then perhaps one of them will have the sense to ransom you. Pretty little thing such as yourself will draw a lot of attention on the market."

As for that Desota character, Valkyrie clicked her tongue and shook her head with faux sadness. "He already has once, my dear. Why do you think little Balsam is still in chains?"

She barked for Inga and then followed Eris as the girl backed up against the tree. Valkyrie wouldn't let the girl build anymore distance between them. "Now, my dear, this can go one of two ways," she said as Inga came running with a coil of rope looped around her torso. "You can either let us tie you, in which case you will reach my camp in one piece, or you can resist and I can make no promises besides this one: some part of you will make it to camp."

""

Attention? What did she mean? Eris' eyes focused and unfocused. This couldn't be happening. Perhaps this was a nightmare, and she would wake any second now. She would kick herself awake, sweating and panting, and she would be beneath the Sword Tree. Lament would come running to soothe her. This is a nightmare. This is a nightmare. This is a nightmare. She had the queerest feeling that she was outside of her own body, watching Valkyrie stalk closer to a lifeless, pathetically small creature. Oh. That's me.

At her neck, the ferret sunk its teeth into Eris' neck. She squealed with surprise, finding herself brought rudely back to the present. "Go, find Lament," she hissed over her shoulder, slavering with fear. Saliva hung in rivulets from her jaws, and any minute now she was sure that she'd throw up. The ferret took her cue and jettisoned from Eris' back, scampering faster than one might have thought possible for a creature that had so recently been injured. It wormed its way into the undergrowth and was gone in a flash.

Eris wasn't sure if she'd done the right thing, but she prayed and prayed to Tor that Lament would receive her messenger and seek her out. She hated to worry her brother, but Valkyrie seemed to mean business as a strange, pure black monkey ran at her with a rope. "F-f-f-fine... t-tie me," she sputtered, then promptly threw up on her own chest and paws. Vomit steamed hot and awful in the cool autumn air.

The girl instructed her companion go find someone and Valkyrie very nearly prevented its escape - it would have made someone a fine scarf - but it was gone in a flash and if she had to pick between them, she would take the wolf without so much as a second thought.

 

She clicked her tongue in annoyance. The ferret could lead someone back to this very spot which meant steps would have to be taken to disguise the path to the camp. It was a difficult she thought she could overcome no problem, it just meant she would have to exert more energy to take this captive. "Yes," she said dryly. "Bring me this Lament. One can never have too many slaves."

Valkyrie watched with disdain as the young woman nervously vomited on herself. Her nose wrinkled in disgust. It was a good thing the woman was pretty.

She stepped forward and roughly shoved the smaller woman to the boggy ground, aiming to drop her on her right side. With Eris down Valkyrie placed a paw on her neck and extended her claws so that they bit into the girl's skin. She did this in the hopes of killing any resistance the girl had with a not-so-subtle threat. If she snapped at Inga the promise of a ransom wouldn't stop Valkyrie from drowning her in the swamp. "Be still," she warned her coldly. "I'd hate for more than vomit to sully that coat of yours."

Dutifully Inga stepped forward and sought to tightly bind Eris' mouth shut. This would be done to prevent her from screaming should a search party come close. If this was successful Inga would then loop the remainder of the cord around Eris' neck so that it could be used like a leash.

""

Slaves... Lament would never be a slave. He would destroy this foul woman, rend her limb from limb. He would not stand for any abuse done to her. Weakly, Eris lifted her head and spat a mouthful of thick bile at Valkyrie, aiming for any part of the female's body she might reach. Just as soon as she had orchestrated this last show of pride, she was dropped to her right side roughly. There was no way Eris could fight back - strange, small pinpricks in her ribcage hinted at Valkyrie's claws.

Tor, look upon my suffering. Guide and aid Lament in his quest. She couldn't even think about Oxide. It was too painful. He wasn't here to save her this time; it was her own fault. She was useless, pathetic, worthless. Screwing her eyes shut tight - Eris refused to cry again, she had spent enough liquid on this wretched woman - she went limp. It was easy for Inga to manipulate her, small as she was. As the rope snaked tightly around her mouth, a quiet light went out in Eris' eyes. The rope around her neck barely registered.

Valkyrie's retaliation after being spat on was swift. Her paw darted forward, claws extended, and she raked it across Eris' face. She struck hard and she struck fast, the wolfish bitch-slap skipping across Eris' cheek before her claws found purchase in the diminutive woman's ear. Being that the skin was thinnest there along the path of destruction, that was where the majority of the damage was done.

 

Her voice lackadaisical and not at all in sync with the ice in her gaze, she mused, "Perhaps I will let the men have you before they throw you in the pit. Such a pretty young thing, I'm sure they would jump at the chance..." She was quiet for a second, then shrugged to herself and smiled. "But we have a long journey ahead of us, plenty of time for me to think on it." There, let her stew on that for their journey. During that time the girl's imagination would not doubt conjure up all manners of horror. None in that manner awaited her, but Valkyrie sure hoped Eris thought it did.

"Now," she purred. "Come my dear. Your family will now have to pay me double and I can't wait to get my paws on it." Without another word Valkyrie grabbed the end of the rope, gave it a yank and began walking in the opposite direction. She didn't glance back to see if Eris was quick to rise and if she was met with any resistance she would continue to walk anyway. If Valkyrie had to drag her the whole way she would.

""

The sting of pain came as a shock to her, lighting her world bright, blinding white. Eris gasped into the muzzle. What came out was a strange, strangled noise. Her eyes began to water of their own accord, as much as she wished to no longer cry. Her ear smarted and bled freely, streaming down into her eye and lips. She sputtered with what limited movement her mouth had.

As much as she may have desired to struggle, Eris knew it would only bring her more pain. Her torn ear would be a constant reminder of this wretched experience. Praying for grace, Eris gave herself up to Tor. There was nothing more she could do. Valkyrie's words rolled off of her - the Ademre didn't understand sex as the way some common wolves understood it, and so her captor's foulest threat fell on deaf ears. Eris just assumed that they might also tear her limb from limb, and she hoped that when they were finished there wouldn't be a single trace of her left on this earth. Then Lament, her sisters, and Oxide could never find her and know what became of their poor little shadow.

Eris stumbled listlessly after Valkyrie, a hollow broken thing.